OFFICIAL - New Downtown YMCA (former Lyric Theater)

Issues concerning Downtown as described by the Downtown Council. River to 31st Street, I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins.
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grovester
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by grovester »

This is someone's pet project.
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wahoowa
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by wahoowa »

and that person sucks.
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FangKC
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by FangKC »

I find it curious that Historic KC raises hell over the Westport bank building, yet no similar reaction over demolishing the majority of the Lyric building.
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by flyingember »

FangKC wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:53 pm I find it curious that Historic KC raises hell over the Westport bank building, yet no similar reaction over demolishing the majority of the Lyric building.
I'm not. They're self-centered hypocrites.
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by WSPanic »

I have a hard time believing that UMKC wanted anything to do with restoring/maintaining an old downtown theater/auditorium. They want a new, state-of-the-art $100M facility to draw students. While we all know this is a cool space, I don't think students are really drawn to these older types of facilities that are hard to retrofit with modern amenities.

Combine that with the fact the Music Hall and Folly are better facilities in the same neighborhood - it's hard to imagine someone wanting to jump in and deal with it.

Sucks to lose the auditorium, but this seems like a good use of the building. They are reportedly maintaining the front facade and lobby - so a lot of the history will be preserved to a certain extent. And, as mentioned, it should add some good foot traffic in the AM/PM to the area.
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by WSPanic »

flyingember wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 9:54 am
FangKC wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:53 pm I find it curious that Historic KC raises hell over the Westport bank building, yet no similar reaction over demolishing the majority of the Lyric building.
I'm not. They're self-centered hypocrites.
No they're not. I know plenty of people on the board and have worked with them in the past. They're good people. I don't agree with everything they do - and they are not a terribly efficient organization, but they do some decent work. In the end, it's a volunteer board, a staff of two/three people and an extremely limited budget. They are what they are.

I guess if you want to resort to name-calling and personal attacks as a way to prove you occupy some imagined moral high ground - have at it. I've never bought your schtick, but you seem to enjoy yourself and have a wonderful base on knowledge. So, it's usually a pretty good read.

I would only ask that others form their own opinions based on interactions with the HKC group itself - rather than the ramblings of an anonymous internet poster.
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by flyingember »

WSPanic wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 10:13 am
flyingember wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 9:54 am
FangKC wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:53 pm I find it curious that Historic KC raises hell over the Westport bank building, yet no similar reaction over demolishing the majority of the Lyric building.
I'm not. They're self-centered hypocrites.
No they're not. I know plenty of people on the board and have worked with them in the past. They're good people. I don't agree with everything they do - and they are not a terribly efficient organization, but they do some decent work. In the end, it's a volunteer board, a staff of two/three people and an extremely limited budget. They are what they are.

I guess if you want to resort to name-calling and personal attacks as a way to prove you occupy some imagined moral high ground - have at it. I've never bought your schtick, but you seem to enjoy yourself and have a wonderful base on knowledge. So, it's usually a pretty good read.

I would only ask that others form their own opinions based on interactions with the HKC group itself - rather than the ramblings of an anonymous internet poster.
You can say all you want. When they release a list that's so indiscriminate that a modern strip mall is deemed endangered it's clear they lost focus.

The board was involved with Nopus, which focused on a no longer historic building near to them while not fighting the city tearing down hundreds of historic homes across the city.

They're so poorly focused that the oldest building in Clay County isn't on their list. Some rooms could be 190 years old and could be the oldest building in the entire metro area. If that's not historic and worthy of featuring I don't know what is.

Also, I'm only anonymous if you haven't bothered to find out who I am.
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WSPanic
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by WSPanic »

That's all fair criticism. It's also not anywhere NEAR evidence of them being self-centered hypocrites.

Also, I don't care who you are. I can tell you have a very high opinion of yourself. Which is nice for you.
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by KCPowercat »

Their positions in Westport have soured me as to what their core ideals are.... But not enough to ever dig in and see what exactly they are about (other than their name)
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by flyingember »

WSPanic wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 11:53 am That's all fair criticism. It's also not anywhere NEAR evidence of them being self-centered hypocrites.
True, luckily that's not all the evidence.
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by mykn »

WSPanic wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 10:13 am I would only ask that others form their own opinions based on interactions with the HKC group itself - rather than the ramblings of an anonymous internet poster.
I have ran into HKC many times when I was on my old neighborhood association. They are asshole NIMBYs, every single one I've ran into. The OPUS project cemented that for me. The only good members of HKC I've met were in their youth preservationist group, they seemed to have their head on straight and not always agree with HKC.
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by moderne »

Saving the facade and losing the auditorium is ok by me. I was a 20 year symphony season ticket holder who gradually moved up to the best seats in the house(the middle of the front row of the balcony). But in most respects the theater even with its acoustic modifications was lousy. The decorative aspects were not even noteworthy. There was plenty of good reasons the symphony and opera wanted out.
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KCDowntown
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by KCDowntown »

Scroll to the end of this PDF from the upcoming Industrial Development Authority meeting to see renderings and more information about the YMCA/Lyric plan.

Demolition starts December 2018
Vertical construction May 2019
Opening April 2021

KCDowntown
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by TheLastGentleman »

KCDowntown wrote: Sat Oct 13, 2018 12:28 am Scroll to the end of this PDF from the upcoming Industrial Development Authority meeting to see renderings and more information about the YMCA/Lyric plan.

Demolition starts December 2018
Vertical construction May 2019
Opening April 2021

KCDowntown
Those renderings are of the old design. The documents I posted earlier in this thread are the latest
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by smh »

Huh, well this came back from nowhere.
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by TheLastGentleman »

Demo time
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by TheLastGentleman »

The article uses old renderings. I know for a fact that the drawings I posted show the final design
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by TheLastGentleman »

Image

Image

Image
missingkc
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Re: New Downtown YMCA

Post by missingkc »

Collison's article and kcbj now show these renderings.
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